Colorado men's basketball: No. 20 Buffs race past No. 10 Ducks

Booker scores career-high 27 points in win

As always, Oregon came into Boulder on Sunday with the idea of running.

Most teams have been overwhelmed by the Ducks' fast-paced style this season. Not the Colorado Buffaloes.

Led by junior guards Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie, the No. 20 Buffs beat the 10th-ranked Ducks at their own game, 100-91 at Coors Events Center.

"We want to run. I wish everybody would come into the Coors Events Center and run with us like Oregon," CU head coach Tad Boyle said. "That's the way we want to play. We want to play fast and get up and down. That was fun today."

Booker scored a career-high 27 points and Dinwiddie added 23 as the Buffs (13-2, 2-0 Pac-12) handed Oregon (13-1, 1-1) its first loss. It's the first time in three seasons together that the duo has scored at least 20 points in the same game. They also combined for 11 assists and 11 rebounds.

"We understand that to beat teams like Oregon, Ski can't do it by himself, Spencer can't do it by himself; we have to do it together," Boyle said.

Together, the Buffs have built an impressive resume this season, with Sunday's win being the latest head-turner during the Boyle era. The Buffs have now defeated the last five ranked teams that have come into Boulder, and they are 6-2 at home against ranked teams in Boyle's four seasons.

"We thought we kind of made a statement with Kansas," Dinwiddie said of a 75-72 win against the then-No. 6 Jayhawks on Dec. 7. "We just showed that we aren't going to lose at home. We're a very tough team at home and we continue to show that."

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Oregon came in averaging a nation-leading 89.2 points per game. The Ducks topped that, but CU had its most explosive output on offense since a 104-59 win against Longwood on Dec. 19, 2010.

Booker and Dinwiddie led that charge on offense. They combined for 32 points in the second half alone, all of those in the final 15 minutes.

It may have been the best game of Booker's career. In addition to his 27 points, he had seven rebounds, four assists and no turnovers.

"For all you guys that watch, when Ski plays really well, we play really well," Dinwiddie said. "We kind of go as he goes. Ski knows it, he can be up and down, but when he's up, we are one good team. When he's down, we struggle. That's the sign of a very good player when he has that type of effect on the team. He played extremely well today and we got a good win against a top-ranked team."

Oregon threatened to run away with this one, though. Mike Moser scored eight of his team-high 24 points in a span of 48 seconds, giving the Ducks a 58-48 lead with 14:29 to go.

At that point, the Ducks were drilling shots from all over the floor and were well on their way to another 100-point outing. Boyle called a timeout, though, and the Buffs regrouped.

"This team has toughness, they have resiliency and they obviously believe in each other, because we were kind of at the brink there when we called a timeout down 10, and our guys responded," Boyle said.

From that point, the Buffs out-scored the Ducks 52-33. The offense was stellar down the stretch, but so was the defense, holding Oregon to 39.5 percent shooting in the second half.

"Defensively our guys stepped up after that timeout," Boyle said. "To me, that's what won the game."

Some big shots by the guards helped, too.

Dinwiddie scored 14 points -- including four 3-pointers -- during a stretch of 3:34 that built a 72-66 lead for the Buffs.

Later in the half, Booker converted a three-point play and hit a big jumper. Then, he got to the free throw line and buried two shots to give the Buffs their biggest lead, 91-80, with 2:23 to go.

"We got the lead and we were so giddy about scoring baskets that we didn't guard," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "We had mostly bad defense. I'm not going to take anything away from Booker and Dinwiddie. They scored baskets and are pretty good offensive players. But, we didn't guard them."

Whatever the reason, the Buffs will take it. They shot 56.4 percent as a team, out-rebounded the Ducks 39-33 and came away with another win that'll open some eyes around the country.

"That was a high-level basketball game," Boyle said. "It was a treat for anybody who was in the building today."

The Colorado offense was stellar all day, as they shot 55.6 percent in the first half and then topped that with 57.1 percent shooting in the second half. Defensively, the Buffs stepped up their game in the final 14 minutes.

What went wrong

CU gave up 58 points in the first 26 minutes of the game, as Oregon had its way on offense.

Stars of the game

Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie. The junior guards were sensational in leading the Buffs. Booker scored a career-high 27 points and Dinwiddie had 23. They also combined for 11 assists and 11 rebounds.

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